Images of Germans and peoples of Austria-Hungary during the First World War based on the memoirs of Russian veterans

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the transformations of the images of the Germans and the peoples of Austria-Hungary as military opponents of the Russian imperial army during the First World War through the prism of the memoirs of front-line soldiers. Research methods: historical-genetic, historical-comparative, method of content analysis. Main results. The pre-war images of Germans and the peoples of Austria-Hungary who lived in Russian society were studied; the memoirs of front-line soldiers were analyzed for the use of propaganda clichés or a critical attitude towards Russian information policy; the combat and moral and psychological characteristics of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies in the memoirs of Russian combatants of the First World War were investigated; the phenomenon of the collapse of the Russian front in 1917 is considered through the prism of transformations in the perception of the military opponent by Russian lower ranks and officers. Conclusions. The experience of the First World War showed the moral unpreparedness of Russian soldiers to engage in battle with the soldiers of Germany and Austria-Hungary at the initial stage of the confrontation due to the unhistorical nature of this conflict, the alliance between these states in the past. In view of this, Russian propaganda was designed to teach front-line soldiers to hate the new enemy. However, actual combat experience had a greater influence on the perception of the enemy than propaganda. Soldiers of Germany and Austria-Hungary appear through the prism of memoirs as those who are better technologically equipped, however, often capable of personal bravery and willpower, prone to subterfuge, accustomed to fighting in better living conditions than the Russians. Real combat experience contributed to the acquisition of human traits (both positive and negative) by the enemy in the imagination of Russian soldiers. This "humanization" of the enemy contributed to a rapprochement with him and became one of the factors of mass "fraternization" of soldiers and the disintegration of the front in 1917. Practical significance: the results of the study can be used in teaching the course "Social History of Europe" (university elective course at DNU named after Olesya Honchara). Originality: for the first time, the connection between the field of ideas of the mass of soldiers and the phenomenon of the disintegration of the Eastern Front of the First World War in 1917 was analyzed. Scientific novelty: the dynamics of transformations of the images of the military adversary in the environment of the Russian army during 1914–1917 are shown; analyzed a large array of memoirs of senior officers and lower ranks of the Russian army published either during the war or shortly after its end, which were not available to domestic researchers for a long time. Type of article: analytical.